


Fly Fishing

by SavageSavannah



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: Doctor/River sexuals, F/M, Madame Vastra/ Jenny Flint sexuals, Weeping Angels - Freeform, hurt Doctor and River, poor awkward Strax walking in on so many sexuals, sneaky sneaky TARDIS, will add tags and warnings as they apply and stuff
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2014-10-02
Updated: 2014-10-03
Packaged: 2018-02-19 14:42:15
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 2
Words: 3,158
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/2392097
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SavageSavannah/pseuds/SavageSavannah
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Let's just say instead of saying that she and the Doctor shouldn't travel together 24/7, they do because they should and it's been a rough day and they need some family time (minus the two family members that just got got by angels). Too bad they have a mischievous TARDIS and work to do. No worries. They still manage to find time to make sweet, sweet, time lord love.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Travel With Me

“Doctor.” River’s voice was filled with concern. For a moment, the tiniest of moments, he wished he’d never met her, wished she’d never been born, Rory and Amy had never set foot on the TARDIS, he’d never met the little girl who waited for him and the boy who waited for her. He nearly blinked; a bit of breath escaped his lips. Then River’s fingers closed around his bicep and that moment was over. In this new moment he needed her like he needed both hearts to beat within his chest. They backed away from the angel and from the gravestone etched with the names of what was now the distant past. River closed the door of the TARDIS quietly as the Doctor slipped down to the floor against the chairs. His eyes fixed on River’s back, only then did he notice her shudder. He hung his head, ashamed at his selfishness. Then he climbed to his feet and crept over to her, his fingers brushing against her cheek.

“River, I’m sorry, they were your parents. I…”

She cut him off and began pulling away. “It doesn’t matter.” The Doctor wrapped his fingers gently around her wrist, the same wrist she’d slapped him for healing what seemed like decades ago. It hardly dawned on him that it had been.

“Yes it does,” he whispered. River ignored him, breaking free to make her way to the console. She stood unmoving, her hands rested on the controls but her fingers shook too much to use them. He could tell how hard she was trying not to feel, or at the very least not to show it. Something she’d convinced herself she had to do for him. He went to her. He rubbed his palms down her arms and let her feel his breath against her neck. He needed her to know that he knew the way her heart was beating like the last claps of thunder rolling through the clouds after a storm, because he too felt defeated. Finally her head fell back against his shoulder and tears streamed down her face. The Doctor put his lips to the top of River’s head and closed his eyes. He only realized she’d turned when she was kissing down his cheeks, her lips damp with tears he hadn’t known he’d been crying. Somehow he managed to smile at her.

“Hello sweetie,” she sighed. The words were all too familiar. He couldn’t decide if he wished they weren’t. He kissed her then, wrapped his hand up in her hair and caressed her lips with his in the softest of ways. He expected the kiss to last, wanted it to last, but River pulled away. She smiled briefly then turned back to the controls and started up the TARDIS in a way that screamed she’d rather be anywhere but there. Only the Doctor couldn’t tell if it was because of him or because of her parents that so suddenly she felt the need to run away.

“Despite,” she began but paused, unsure. “Despite today…you shouldn’t travel alone.” Simultaneously they grimaced. “You should never travel alone.” He was still behind her, still so close that he merely needed to whisper. His hands slipped over hers.

“Travel with me then.” River froze. He knew what her response would be even before he had spoken so he went on in a flood of scrambling over his words in the hopes that she’d change her mind before she said it. “You belong here with me,” he tried. But he could tell the words weren’t right. “I need you…” Still when she turned to look at him he could see she would deny him. So he kissed her again. This time he kissed her with fervor. He kissed her in desperate pleading that she would not leave him. He kissed her like it was the last great deed he’d ever perform, and if that had been so it would’ve been worth it. This time the kiss did not end so quickly.

The Doctor felt River sigh into his mouth as it moved down from her lips to the edge of her jaw tracing a pattern across her skin. Her hands held onto his arms like a lifeline as he reached her collarbone. He pulled her tight against him with both arms around her waist and hoisted her onto the console. He pushed down the shoulders of her dress to gain better access to her skin, inhaling her scent all the while. River’s back arched a bit and her arms readjusted in order to keep hold to her seat. In the heat of the moment they had both forgotten where they were. On a mission to bring them back into reality, the TARDIS began to quake in that way she always did on her path to new places and times. River could give her a gold medal for biggest buzz kill as the lovers stumbled back from the console, their hands searching wildly for a hold.

“TARDIS, destination!?” The Doctor lunged forward, grabbing the screen and pulling it towards him. Suddenly she stopped. Both passengers were jostled, River bouncing across the 

“TARDIS,” the Doctor scolded. He helped River to her feet. She glanced at the screen.

“Where’s she taken us?”

“I’m not sure,” he admitted. The screen glitched in and out and he smacked its edge twice. “Come on!”

“Doctor,” River called to him from where she stood at the TARDIS entrance, the door swung wide in her grasp. He curved his neck to the side in search of whatever there was to see. Strax stood armed and ready, gun trained on River.

“Sir, you seem to have encountered a stowaway! The lad is almost certainly hiding weapons within his large…hat.” River patted her hair as she turned back to the doctor, her brow           furrowed. Before their conversation could continue Vastra’s voice swept into the room and throughout the TARDIS.

“Strax, put your gun back in your room.” The Doctor skipped out into the room in which they had landed. River followed.        

“Vastra! How lovely to be delivered to your door step.” The Doctor glanced around the room, which was clearly not prepared for guests. He patted the corner of the TARDIS. “Should’ve called first perhaps…”

River chuckled. “Perhaps.” The group heard Jenny climbing the stairs.           

“Jenny!” The Doctor ran to meet her.

“Doctor,” Jenny gasped as his embrace nearly knocked her over. Soon enough they were returning with Strax in tow. The five of them crammed into the spare room currently occupied with case details and corkboard clues leading who knows where. Vastra cleared her throat roughly.

“Might I suggest we take this rendezvous to the parlor? Perhaps have some tea.”

“Excellent suggestion,” Strax boomed. “All stand at attention!” Strax began marching towards to the staircase, no one really paying him much mind. Upon reaching the parlor Jenny began the tea and everyone took a seat. Unfortunately, there were only enough seats for the group minus one.

“Strax, surely you can find it within yourself to give your seat to our guest,” Vastra began. Strax looked disgruntled.

“Oh no, I-” River’s words were cut off by the Doctor.

“Nonsense!” He stood, allowing River to take his place, and perched himself on the armrest. “There’s plenty room for each bum I should think.” Vastra smirked, a face suddenly hidden by Jenny bringing the tea. It was she who finally broke through the ice.

“What brings you by, Doctor?” Jenny’s voice was just as kind and warm as ever. Every tense shoulder relaxed.

“Not sure really. TARDIS glitch,” the Doctor began.

“The TARDIS doesn’t merely glitch, does she Doctor,” Jenny questioned.

He glanced at his hands in thought. “Well no… not really.” Vastra, already on the offensive, trained her eyes on River whose focus was upwards towards the room above them that held the TARDIS and all the information on Vastra’s current case. Before Vastra could question her, she was voicing her own curiosities.

“What case are you working on?” All eyes went to her. Strax butt in.

“The stowaway is trying to infiltrate the case! Shall I restrain, ma’ am?”

“No, Strax, thank you,” Vastra waved her hand at his suggestion. “Why do you ask?”

“Well certainly the TARDIS didn’t bring us around for tea,” River hypothesized aloud. “Perhaps you need our assistance?”

“Excellent!” The Doctor jumped up. “To the corkboard!” He bound up the stairs. Vastra and Jenny shared a look of discomfort, one that went unnoticed by all but River.

“Ladies?” River nearly asked them if they’d like to tell her now, but the Doctor was calling her name. She went to him without knowing what was in store.

River found the Doctor staring intently at the corkboard, his fingers brushed over pictures that were pinned in place as he repositioned nearly every one. River stood to his left, trying her best to piece everything together. The faces shown were in paintings. The only pictures, from a camera being used way ahead of it's time, were those of bodies missing from their graves and those of empty spaces where it almost looked like statues would be. River’s eyes snapped up.

“Doctor,” she began.

“I know.” Just as he was about to continue Vastra finally entered the room.

“As I’m sure you’ve noticed, we seem to be having an angel problem,” Vastra conceded almost tentatively. Jenny, who wasn’t nearly as concerned as she should have been due to her rather large amounts of faith in not only her wife but also the Doctor, came rushing into the room. She nearly ran right over top of Vastra in her attempt to question her recent realization.

“Doctor,” Jenny commanded his attention. “Where are Rory and Amy?” The Doctor acted as if he had not heard her, as if she weren’t even in the room. River glanced up, her frigid, hardass persona fresh on her features.

“They had a bit of an angle problem of their own,” she whispered.


	2. Lost in the Past

Vastra and Jenny shared a glance of shock. Before they could question further, Strax arrived, clearly flustered, to announce that the lady of the house was requested below at the front door. Jenny bristled.

“Who could that be at this hour?” She followed her wife down the stairs at a safe distance, despite her hatred of keeping up their master and maid façade in their own home. The Doctor did not follow or even listen in, as he was prone to do. River noticed how his movements were stiffer after the mention of Amy and Rory. She searched for the words to take the pain from his mind, but upon remembering how truly daunting and near impossible the task before her was she instead lifted a photo from the cork board in which she noticed an abnormality from the others. Perhaps distraction was a better form of consoling her Doctor for now. His attention grasped, the Doctor’s eyes followed River’s to the picture held gently between her fingertips. This photo was dated as one of the first in the case, almost two weeks prior. It was rare for a case take Vastra and Jenny this long, but then again this case was a bit different.

The photo depicted what a first glance could easily be construed as any old side garden in any old home. There was a black wrought iron gate swung wide at the entrance and covered in vines that had long been growing, in fact such intrusive vines swarmed the entire garden. This included a stone basin that was about waist high as well as the ground. It all looked as if someone had gone in and built the entire thing from vines, all except the oval shape on the ground in which the grass had all faded and died. The vines around this spot looked more as if they had been shaped into or around something, and that something had sliced its way out of its leafy prison. It was after thoroughly observing all these obvious aspects that one might noticed how some spots in the vine carpet were pressed down or together, smashed in that way they might be had there been someone walking over them. After this discovery all that was left was for one to notice the broken chunk of stone, greened from moss and chipped in more places than one, lying at the far corner behind the gate. When the Doctor’s eyes landed on the stone piece River’s eyes were already searching out similar stone pieces in other photos. In some there were none to be found, others were photos of just stone pieces.

“Been crushing the statues,” a stranger’s voice spoke from the doorway. “Getting sloppier though, first they was taking all the pieces, then they started leaving a piece or two. Now…well you see. Aren’t even trying to straighten up after themselves. Yard’s downright having a fit.”

“What for? These are shambled corners of London, unused by most, probably not even noticed by some,” the Doctor countered.

“Not all of ‘em.” The stranger stepped forward, donned in a policeman’s jacket. He flashed his credentials, introducing himself as Detective Allan. He unpinned another photo from the board. Something dawned on River.

“Where are you from?”

“1996,” Allan answered her. He grinned at the squint of her eyes. His fingers wiggled the photo in his hand of yet another broken statue. “Friends of mine,” he muttered. There was only a hint of anger, leaving River with the assumption that it had been too long for the man to hold onto his anger. The Doctor grinned, much to River’s surprise as well as his own.

“How’re you liking the change of scenery,” the Doctor questioned.

“Much more than I originally thought,” Detective Allan smirked. The Doctor smiled softly back, a thought occurring to him. His hand shifted to brush the pocket of his pants that held Amy’s afterward.

“Glad to hear it,” he sighed.

Allan drew attention to the photo in his hand again. “I was here when I met Madame Vastra and Jenny.” He paused a slight smile ghosting across his lips. “And Strax. Guess they could tell I wasn’t exactly from around here.” Another pause. “This is a cemetery, a very full cemetery, and suddenly the _lovely_ statues guarding these fine folks’ loved ones are being crushed, their pieces left to litter the graves.” Allan fingered the corner of a photo of an empty grave still stuck to the board. “Or fill them.”

“And the empty graves are… prepared for people missing? Taken by the angels?” River pondered aloud.

“Maybe,” Allan offered.

“They’re graves that have been dug up,” Vastra told them as she strode into the room. “Still angel victims we think, just not ones that have _yet_ to be buried as far as we can tell. We think this is done by a person who has lost someone to the angels.”

“So now they’re trying to bring that someone back,” River concluded for her.

“Losing one person wouldn’t necessarily beg the need to dig up twenty skeletons,” the Doctor countered.

“But discovering your attempts to save someone you’ve lost have all failed might make you desperate,” Jenny voiced her feelings on the issue, stepping up to Vastra and wrapping her arms around her waist. “I couldn’t imagine losing someone to the past.” As soon as the words left her lips she looked away, ashamed. “Oh…I… I’m so sorry…I didn’t mean to..”

The Doctor spoke first, though it took quite a bit of effort for him to say anything at all. “It’s all right, Jenny.” Allan nodded and forced a smile. River said nothing, tried to feel nothing, pretended she didn’t notice the Doctor tense and clench his fists until his knuckles turned white. Strax came in then, completing their little group. Detective Allan’s eyes lit up, forgetting Jenny’s little PSA. He motioned Strax over to his side.

“Strax! It’s been ages.” Allan’s voice might have raised several octaves in his excitement. Strax’s blush didn’t go unnoticed by his housemates or River or even the Doctor.

“Have I missed that much time since letting you in and now,” Strax questioned honestly. Detective Allan clapped Strax on the shoulder.

“Just an expression, mate.” The word mate slipped gracefully from Allan’s lips with the air of some term with a much more intimate meaning. 

“An odd expression indeed, human!” Strax recoiled and stepped to the side briefly, but not with such urgency to suggest anything more than uncertainty as to why such a human or any human would act towards he, a Santaran, in the manner in which Detective Allan did. The smallest flash of regret passed across Allan’s eyes. Then he was going on about the case again, as if there was nothing extraordinary about his actions towards Strax.

“So, ladies, what’s our next plan of action,” Allan pointed his question towards Vastra. As he did Jenny nudged her to remind her of some earlier conversation they’d had. Vastra nodded slightly to her.

“To pick up with everything in the morning,” Vastra answered. All eyes flew to hers, all except River’s.

“This is highly irregular ma’am,” Strax countered, but Detective Allan had the Santaran under control. Swiftly he stuck his arm through Strax’s and led him towards the stairs.

“Come on, Strax! Certainly there’s something I can find for you to help me with,” they could hear Allan saying as the two descended. The Doctor opened his mouth to object, to suggest instead they go in search of any more clues or problems right away. Before the words could tumble out, however, he felt River’s fingers intertwine with his, her eyes focused on the floor. Vastra lips turned up into the smallest of smiles.

“Perhaps a break is what is needed most, for the moment,” Jenny whispered to them. Then she led her wife out of the room, closing the door behind them.

“Thank you,” River said. The Doctor turned to her but she still wouldn’t look at him. Instead she went to the TARDIS and stepped gently inside, leaving the door open for him to come in as well should he wish. By the time River heard the door close she was nearly out of the console room.

Without looking back she asked, “Will you be all right for a little while?” She was careful to leave out the word “alone.” He was not alone, nor would she let him think that. He nodded, something of course she couldn’t see, but yet she continued on as if she had. Moments later he heard the door close to the library. _Library._ Memories surged through him, moments he’d do anything to change or forget. He wondered what River was going through, he wondered if she felt like he did, at a loss for hope or assistance. He wondered if he tried to go to her now, would she let him.

**Author's Note:**

> Any and all sorts of feedback would be heaps of super duper helpfulness thankee


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